Situation of the cold chain system and some factors to maintain the sustainability of good vaccine storage practice at the provincial level in the Northern region of Vietnam, 2020-2021

Abstract

A cross-sectional study aims to describe the situaion of the cold chain system and some factors to maintain good storage practice (GSP) sustainability at provincial level in 28 northern region provinces from October 2020 to November 2021. The results show that 82.14% of provinces use refrigerators, and 17.86% of others use cold rooms. All Provincial centres for communicable diseases control (CDC) have enough vaccine storage volume, were approved the costnorm for cold chain system and had enough budget to run GSP. Staffs involved in the coordination, preservation, and management of vaccines had adequate knowledge, practice and are fully equipped with protective equipment following regulations. However, 25% of vaccine store were not designed and equipped with signs and temperature monitoring devices to monitor vaccines properly. Several CDCs did not have an emergency and regular plan to perform storage, equipment maintenance. It is needed to have the training to all storage staff and improving the record-keeping process.